"The best leaders in the world are the ones that break down barriers" - Greg Conner of Vanderlande

Dr. Josh Elmore Welcome to the Land and Lead podcast, where we explore the real stories behind leadership transitions, the setbacks, strategies, wins, and moments of all aimed at helping other leaders land well and lead I'm your host, Dr. Josh Elmore of Court Street Consulting. Today we're speaking with Greg Conner, President, Warehouse Solutions, North America at Vanderlande.

As president of North American Warehouse Solutions, Greg oversees Vanderlande's extensive portfolio of integrated materials handling solutions for omni-channel businesses, e-commerce companies, and retailers in the general merchandise, food, and apparel industries. This includes guiding customers at every point in their warehouse automation journeys, whether they are just beginning transition to automated systems or refining the world's most advanced warehouses and distribution centers.

Greg brings nearly 20 years of leadership experience from his tenure at Bastian Solutions, a sister company of Vanderlande in the Toyota Automated Logistics family of companies. Greg has extensive experience overseeing business development, marketing, and sales teams while providing customers with fully integrated solutions that maximize throughput, storage capacity, safety, and other operational imperatives. Greg is a graduate of Purdue University. Welcome to the show, Greg.

Greg Conner Thanks Josh, it's great to be here with you today. Dr. Josh Elmore Wonderful. Yeah, we're excited to have you and to chat about your journey through Vanderlande and coming from Bastian Solutions, kind of process of being internal at the Toyota Automated Logistics family of companies and hear how it all came to fruition and how you've been navigating that role.

So can you share a bit about your background and how you landed at Vanderlande? Greg Conner Yeah, it's a very unconventional journey, if you will. noted, I graduated from Purdue University in degree was in ⁓ business, specifically focused in finance. And although I've done a little bit with finance in my career, that wasn't really where my journey took me out of school.

So I actually thought I wanted to go to law school. I wanted to be an attorney. That was kind of my thought process back in the day. And the more I got into the whole process of accepted into law school and going down that path, the less I thought I wanted to do three more years of school at that time.

And long story made short, one of the business leaders in Indianapolis that I met with was Bill Bastian. And Bill presented me with an incredible opportunity to join his company. I started as a project engineer and did a little bit of site supervision project engineering work, design work, and then about six months into my career in outside sales territory opened and I took that opportunity and absolutely haven't looked back since. It really opened a passion for this industry that still fuels me today.

back, I probably was a little bit crazy. It was 100 % commission, so you eat what you kill, it was a great experience for me and really something that propelled me into the role that I have today at Vanderlande. Dr. Josh Elmore And so you go from university to Bastian and how does Vanderlande come into the story of Bastian?

Greg Conner Yeah, yeah. So, Vanderlande came into the story 19 years later after a variety of different roles within Bastian Solutions. And I think that was one of the things that's been so unique about my experience. But at the same time, I've been just so fortunate to have been exposed to so many different sides of the business within material handling through Bastian whether it be sales or project engineering or corporate development and strategy and marketing.

All of those kind of helped shaped me and helped prepare me for this role that I took on about a year and a half ago within Vanderlande and leading the North American team. When I think back of all the experiences and everything that kind of shaped who I am today, there's a few people that have had a lot of influence on me as an individual. And obviously I referenced Bill Bastian earlier. I owe a lot to Bill Bastian and his entrepreneurship and his steadfastness and determination to grow a company, which was maybe 60 or 65 people when I started in 2005 and now it's close to 2000.

But there's been a lot of others along the way that have had that same level of influence on me. And Aaron Jones, who is the CEO of Bastian Solutions. He kind of tapped me on the shoulder when this position became available. I wasn't really considering a move to Vanderlande at the time.

And he said, Greg, know, as much as I don't want to lose you as part of my leadership team, I think this would be a great opportunity for yourself and obviously to a great opportunity for Toyota. And that's really what propelled me and convinced me was the confidence that Aaron and others had in me to take on this, this new responsibility and this new role at Vanderlande. Dr. Josh Elmore And so listeners have context around kind of the family of companies with the Toyota Automated Solutions family.

How does everything fit together? So we have that context. Greg Conner Yeah, question. Bastian and Vanderlande were privately held companies prior to 2017.

Bastian was third generation family owned with a group of other owners who also worked in the company itself. In 2017, Toyota entered the space of material handling automation. And when you think of Toyota, obviously everyone thinks of automobiles and the automobile industry, but they're also, one of the largest shareholders, one of the largest market share leaders in fork trucks and conventional warehouse equipment. Toyota is an extremely forward thinking company, or most companies are thinking five, 10 years into the future, maybe 20 years at the most.

Toyota is thinking 50 plus years into the future. And as we continue to evolve and develop as a society and technology plays a larger role within warehouse automation, you know, they see potentially fork trucks and automation colliding and the reason to invest in companies like Vanderlande and Bastian Solutions and another company within our space via store all compiled here in the last couple of years. And that's how we all got together. Dr.

Josh Elmore Great, so you have, you know, many roles. How many roles did you go through at Bastian? Greg Conner Wow. Great question.

Many, many roles, some official and some not official, but probably six or seven different roles within Bastian Solution. And, you know, that's one of the things that I loved about the company and I loved about the leadership was, you if you raised your hand and you had what people believed to be a great idea, they didn't wait for others to do it. They empowered you to do it. And that's found myself at one point leading an e-commerce group with another gentleman at Bastian.

I found myself in marketing, which wasn't exactly what I went to school for, what I had a background in, but just the opportunity to make an impact. And that's one of the core values of Bastian that I just absolutely love is that we want to make an impact, not just on ourselves and our own careers, but really on our customers and the company as a whole. Dr. Josh Elmore So, you have six or seven roles at Bastian.

Toyota enters the picture. You got this new opportunity. How did that opportunity come at Vanderlande? And when did you join?

Greg Conner Yeah, so I joined in July of 2024 and you know as to how did the opportunity present itself to me? I think there was an opening and certainly another person left the position and it opened up the door for me. I think that's a lot of times how. So fortunes are made in this.

⁓ There has to be a little bit of luck that goes along with it, but. You it wasn't as if I was looking for a new position. Certainly wasn't looking outside of Bastian Solutions or outside of Toyota, but Aaron Jones kind of tapped me on the shoulder and said, Hey, I think this is a great opportunity for you to take the next step in your career and also help Toyota at the same time as we try and do more together, meaning the Toyota owned companies within North America. So a lot of what I've been focused on here for the betterment of the last year and a half or so is, trying to take, you know, what I learned at Bastian and what I know about that company and know about the industry and bring these two entities together within North America.

Because we do compliment ourselves very much so in the market. as opposed to being two different brands focusing on the same industry, we're really trying to focus on ⁓ Toyota within North America and what can we do to help one another's, what can we do to help our target customers. Dr. Josh Elmore Great, so we have this kind of joining of strategy.

You move over and bring with you that kind of suite of experience from a previous company, but very adjacent in terms of the of the skill set. So what was the situation when you entered the role? Greg Conner Yeah, So if you look at Vanderlande and where we were, you know, just a few months ago, great story, great company, great products, but really not as positioned as well as we would like to be within the North American market. So lot of my focus has been on, you know, telling that story, making sure that we're getting our brand not only identified within the market, but you know, our people feel empowered and educated to go out there and really celebrate who we are throughout the world and spread the message of Vanderlande, spread the message of Toyota.

From a sales perspective, when I started, had to be pretty honest with ourselves in terms of what our sales pipeline looked like and really the direction that we wanted to take this group within the market, within Toyota. are great questions, right? I think people felt so empowered involved in the company that hadn't maybe happened in the past that we were able to get people really quickly in the right seats on the bus and rowing in the right direction. And that's really helped us over this last year and a half get to where we're at today.

Dr. Josh Elmore And so, right, you gotta work things out, kinda turn things around a little bit, and head in a new direction. What strategies have helped you navigate that transition, but then also your own personal transition as a leader? Greg Conner Yeah, I think the really the first thing I tried to do when I came over to Vanderlande was empower people and find out, you know, what have there been their challenges in the past and what would help them be successful.

So I'm a big believer in skip level meetings and ensuring that everybody in the organization from top to the bottom has access to me at any time that they need it. And it's not to micromanage or take any responsibility away from our management team and individual managers, it's to make sure that we're communicating as an organization. And I know what's bothering people, or I know what's going to help make the organization better. So that was one of the first tools that I put in place here was, we're going to communicate.

We have an open door policy. We're going to share what we learn, good news and bad news, and we're going to propel this thing forward. And that was really, really well received. I think anytime you give employees a voice and they not only are being heard, but they're being responded to, right, that we're actually making change.

That's when people start getting really fired up and really helping not only their fair weight on the rope, if you will, for thinking a tug of war, but they're pulling harder than the guy next to them or just as hard as the person next to them. And then you get that flywheel effect where things are really moving fast. Dr. Josh Elmore Hmm.

And so it sounds like what you heard that folks were ready for change or looking for did you navigate the kind of you got this feedback, you got the assessment, you did skip level, you did the communications, you're a year and a half in, where are you at in that journey of change? Greg Conner Yeah. We're definitely not where we need, where we want to be ultimately, but honestly, you also have to understand that it's a race you're never going to finish, right? You're always getting better.

You're getting better as a leader and your organization is always challenged to get better. If you ever think you're at the finish line, then either your career is over or it's about to be over because somebody's going to pass you pretty quick. So those are some of the things that we've tried to focus on here. I think the other thing that's important to our team besides just having a voice is having a purpose and understanding where we fit not only in the market, but where we fit in the company.

And when we look at warehouse automation, it's one of the fastest growing markets in the entire, in all industry, in all segments. And making sure that our people understand that we play a big part of that, that there's a huge pie out there and it's a…we need to go out there and capture our share of that. And we're going to do that in what I think is truly a fun and a really, really rewarding experience. And that's helping clients, being a partner to them.

We're not a vendor. We're not selling widgets. We're out there selling solutions that make their companies better. And that's a great feeling at the end of the day when you've not only accomplished something for your company, but you've really accomplished to help somebody else's company as well.

Dr. Josh Elmore And I'm thinking about, right, the challenge of change and all of you know, complexities that come with it. But I'm also thinking about your time at Bastian and that you were there for so roles, six, seven roles. What about your past did you bring with you to kind of help you in this moment, ⁓ kind of as a leader?

Greg Conner Yeah, I was very fortunate to work under some amazing leaders at my time at Bastian. And one of the things that I always respected about them whether they realized it or not, the best leaders in this world are the ones that break down barriers so that their employees can be successful. And I've always viewed that as my biggest responsibility. There's plenty of other responsibilities and a lot of things on the to-do list, but nothing is more important than breaking down any of the barriers that are preventing or blocking our employees from achieving success.

So that's a big part, know, that's what drives me, that's what fuels me in the morning is how can I make sure that our people are working at 100 % capacity? Dr. Josh Elmore And so you're a year and half in, you've done some change, you've leveraged kind of your past experiences. What are some wins and setbacks that you experienced through this transition?

Greg Conner Yeah, mean, the sales, you win some and unfortunately you have to lose some as well. But I think probably the biggest win that I can think of is just the overall attitude of the team also the results of getting the right people in the right seats. And it's like a reference before you see that flywheel start to take off. Dr.

Josh Elmore And any setbacks? Greg Conner Of course, yeah, there's been setbacks. You know, we've had leaders, you know, that we put in positions that haven't performed at the level that we thought they were gonna, and we've had to go back and, you know, address those. We've had opportunities that we thought were in the bag that were gonna be really, really transitional for this team that really give us a huge jumpstart and they haven't come to fruition.

But at the end of the day, as a leader, you can't get stuck in the setbacks. You have to be able to rise above those, keep the airplane at 40,000 feet and make sure that everybody understands that we're gonna get to the destination. We're gonna get there, we're gonna be successful, we are successful in trying to keep people's heads up and not getting caught in those individual setbacks, because they're minor in the big scheme of things. As long as we're doing the right things, I think it's a great sports analogy.

If you're executing the X's and the O's, you're gonna be successful and you're gonna win the game. Dr. Josh Elmore And yeah, other ways ⁓ do you consider data that you use to act on for your team to say, OK, we're doing the right things. We're not doing the right things.

We need to pivot here. We need to keep going there. Greg Conner Yeah, we have all kinds of KPIs within this organization and they're all important. And they're all individual metrics that when you add them all up together, that's what's, you can tell analytically, that's what's moving the company forward.

But I'm the type of leader that needs to see it to believe it. And that comes with, I talked about skip level meetings earlier, that comes with, you know, I'm a big believer we gotta be, we need to be together to be successful. You don't close very many deals behind a computer screen. think there were, you know, a lot of things that were learned from COVID, but some of the bad things that might've been learned, some of the bad behaviors that we might've picked up from COVID is this sense that we can do everything by remote control and we can't.

We have to be with our customers. We have to be with our And it's that type of behavior that I think is just, it's so important. So, to have that five minute conversation at the coffee maker and you understand what's happening in somebody's life and you understand the training that they were in the week before, they believe will have such an impact on where their career is heading. It's those type of things that, as for me as a leader, truly believe that we're headed in the right direction as an organization.

Dr. Josh Elmore And know, most leaders are dealing with the kind of ⁓ navigating the hybrid, the ⁓ remote. And you know, the research shows that hybrid is kind of the best choice, right? Where you have that flexibility still, but you got those moments that you're talking about.

How did you navigate that as a leader? And kind of where is the journey at for your people? Greg Conner Mm-hmm. Yeah, I believe as well.

mean, there's no substitution for being together, but we as an employer have to be flexible. Certainly life isn't moving any slower today than it was a few years ago. If anything, it's picked up in pace. We're always connected, right?

You can't hardly go anywhere in this world being a text away from a problem that needs to be resolved. And with that as an employer, have to recognize that people are being stretched. not working eight to five. This isn't our grandparents' organization anymore.

The clock does not stop. We're not punching a time card. And as a result of that, of course, hybrid makes sense. But as a leader, I feel like I have to be present in the office as much as possible.

And my travel schedule doesn't always allow that. But I take a lot of pride in being one of the first people here in the morning and being one of the last people to leave in the evening because I think as leaders we have to set that example, right? We can't just say it, we have to live it. Dr.

Josh Elmore Yeah, there was a Wall Street Journal article, I think a couple years back that talked about the idea of ⁓ leaders mandating being in the office, but not being in the office themselves. Greg Conner It doesn't work. It's like anything else. Anything that becomes a mandate that's not lived by leadership, it's simply ⁓ something to take under advisement.

Dr. Josh Elmore Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. So there's a question that I like to ask all of my guests. In the 1980s, John Gabarro ran a few studies focused on general managers and presidents as they pursued new roles and wrote the results up in the book, The Dynamics of Taking Charge.

Gabarro explained that an executive has fully taken charge when they have mastered the new assignment in sufficient depth to be managing the organization as efficiently as the resources, constraints, and the manager's own ability allow. Thinking about this definition where 100 % is having fully taken charge, what percent would you say you are at now? Greg Conner Wow, that's a great question. I take a lot of pride in being my own biggest critique, my own biggest challenger.

So if I ever thought I was any more than 75 % at anything, I don't think I ⁓ would be ⁓ answering that question honestly, because quite frankly, as humans, we're always growing. And if we're not growing, something's wrong with us. For me, it's always finding new ways to sharpen the axe, if you will, and be a better leader, be a better coach, be a better coworker in my personal life, be a better husband, be a better father. There's all those things out there.

So it'd be very difficult to give a percentage of where I'm on that journey, but I'm certainly a heck of a lot further away from the finish line than I would give myself credit for. Dr. Josh Elmore And so how do you update your 75 %? What's your practice for updating?

Greg Conner I'm a big reader. I read all the time. I really try and stay up on, you know, current events and new trends and, you know, I love hearing how other people have accomplished problems or have solved problems. I also love hearing the stories of how people have failed, not because I'm rooting for someone to fail, but because I want to avoid that situation myself.

And I think, you know, man, if there's, if there's any better lesson than having, you know, having failed or being exposed to something that hasn't quite gone perfectly, the lessons you learn from that are so much more impactful than a success story. I love reading business books. I love reading biographies. I just finished a book not too long ago that was written by a gentleman that was an Admiral in the Navy.

the title of the book was called It's Your Ship. It was written by Michael Abrashoff and I absolutely love that book because of the message that it delivers and it delivers that we're all in this together. This isn't my company, it's not Conner Material Handling. This is everybody's company here and if we all pull our weight, we can become, as he put it, can become the best boat in the Navy.

We can certainly become one of the best companies in our industry. Dr. Josh Elmore Hmm, that's super powerful. Yeah, it's a shared experience that we kind of all had to pull together, you know.

Greg Conner It makes it not so overwhelming, right? You know, if you come to work every day as a leader and you think, man, got all these things we got to accomplish by the end of the year. And, you know, it's not me accomplishing it. It's not, you know, one of my coworkers accomplishing it.

If we all divide up the slices of the pizza, it becomes a heck of a lot easier to digest. And it's also a lot more fun. You think about, you know, back to your, your upbringings and sports teams that we were on or clubs that you were involved in, you know, when you have that success as a team. It's so much greater than any individual accomplishment that you can have.

Dr. Josh Elmore Yeah, certainly. you your thought has me thinking about the cross-functionality of an organization. And kind of when you came in, you had this focus on sales.

And where is your head at as you kind of continue on? You're in transition. Where are you seeing kind of the needs of the organization for kind of the next set of updates? And how do you help the organization kind of pursue that new direction?

Greg Conner Yeah, we had a very comprehensive strategy when we started back in July of 2024. And then, of course, started with sales, started with business development, started with brand recognition. But we continue just pushing things down through the funnel. So now we're focused on operations, right?

And we've landed some business. We've got a very strong sales pipeline. Now it's time to start focusing on operational success and achievement, customer support, all the other stuff that comes later in the process. But it comes for a great reason, right?

We're in this challenge now because we accomplished the first challenge. that's what makes business so much fun is if you ever run out of challenges, if you ever run out of opportunities to improve, then something's not going right or it certainly isn't going as well as you think it is. Dr. Josh Elmore And I guess that's where the 75 % figure comes in.

So about as we wrap up the conversation, what advice would you share with leaders currently entering a new high stakes role? Greg Conner Right? Yep. Yeah, guess the biggest piece of advice that I would share is don't get caught up on the lows of the lows or the highs of the highs.

The answer usually to most questions is in the middle. It's never ever as good as you think it might be, and it's never ever as bad as you might think it might be. And I think that's the testament or really what separates a great leader from an average leader are those that can really rise above the chaos, which happens every single second of every day, if you're zoomed in and rise above that and never ever let your, your head get caught up in the details. Keep your eye on the ball.

Keep your eye on the prize at the end of the game. Dr. Josh Elmore Hmm. And the details, right?

So that kind of takes you up to that management perspective of, right, leading the ship. You know, we're in it together and guiding them. Really powerful. Well, Greg, you know, thanks so much for joining us.

Is there anything you'd like to share that's coming up for you or Vanderlande? Greg Conner Yeah, I think some of the things that I would advise people if you're interested in this industry, and I think a lot of people, it's kind of the material handling automation industry is one of those that is not on anybody's radar. It certainly wasn't on my radar when I graduated from Purdue University, but it's changed my life in such a powerful way. And I would encourage people to take a look at this industry.

It's really a great kept secret, and it's an industry that's going to continue to grow and evolve over the next many years. It's where we're headed as a society. And I think a lot of that is because it has such an impact on all of us. And you think about the Amazon delivery that shows up on your doorstep or the delivery that comes from Target, that all was handled by the equipment, the technology and the solutions that companies like ours put in place.

Dr. Josh Elmore Wow, wow, yeah. And there are more packages coming every day. So, all right.

Well, thanks again, Greg. Really appreciate you having on the show. Thanks for sharing your wisdom. Greg Conner Thank you.

Yeah, thank you so much for having me. Dr. Josh Elmore Thanks for listening to the Land and Lead Podcast. I'm your host, Dr.

Josh Elmore. Tune in next time for more stories from leaders navigating high-stakes role transitions. Dr. Josh Elmore Since recording, Toyota Industries has announced its intention to reorganize its warehouse automation business to create Toyota Automated Logistics, or TAL.

This initiative will bring together the strengths of Vanderlande’s warehouse domain, Bastian, and Viastore. The new organizational structure is expected to begin operations in April.